The government will devote more efforts in 2017 to implement¹ the new assessment² mechanism³ of local officials that focuses more on environment than economic growth, said the top economic planner.

国家最高经济规划部门近日表示，2017年，政府将加大力度，以更为注重环境而非经济增长的新的评价机制对地方官员进行考核。

Under the new measures, officials' performance will be judged based on various environment-related indicators⁴, including resources utilization⁵, environment quality, ecological⁶ protection, green lifestyle and public satisfaction, said Zhao Chenxin, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission.

发改委发言人赵辰昕表示，根据新措施，官员考核将基于多项与环境相关的指标，包括资源利用、环境质量、生态保护、绿色生活和公众满意度等。

This is the first time that environment protection carries more weight than economic development in auditing⁷ officials' performance since 1949, when the People's Republic of China was established.

这是自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来，官员考核的环保权重首次超过经济发展权重。

In the "Green Development Index System", which is released last December, economic growth category carries a weight value of 9.2 percent, less than half of the value of other environment categories such as resources utilization and environment quality.

在去年十二月发布的《绿色发展指标体系》中，经济增长的权重值为9.2%，不到资源利用、环境质量权重的一半。

Specifically, the level of PM 2.5 is weighted 2.75 percent while the weight for growth rate of per capita GDP is only 1.83 percent.

具体来说，PM2.5水平的权重占2.75%，而人均GDP增速权重仅占1.83%。

Huang Langhui, a former senior official of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that this marks a major change in China's development mode.

前国家统计局高级官员黄朗辉指出，这标志着中国发展方式的重大变化。

"The strong public reaction towards worsened air quality shows that the environment pollution has become an issue related to people's safety and social stability. The whole society has reached an agreement that the economic growth achieved based on polluted environment is meaningless," Huang said.

黄朗辉说道：“公众对恶化的空气质量的强烈反应表明，环境污染已成为一个关系到人类安全和社会稳定的问题。全社会已达成共识，那就是以污染环境为基础的经济增长是毫无意义的。”